WND EXCLUSIVE

Shocking number say End Times have arrived

New poll asks Americans if biblical prophecies being fulfilled

More than 4 in 10 Americans, along with a full 77 percent of evangelicals, believe the biblical “end times” have arrived, according to a new poll.

The OmniPoll, conducted by the Barna Group, was commissioned by Jim Fitzgerald, author of “The 9/11 Prophecy” and creator of “The WatchWORD Bible,” a video presentation of Scripture that includes the book of Revelation.

According to a report on the poll, the question was: “Do you, personally, believe that the world is currently living in the ‘end times’ as described by prophecies in the Bible, or not?”

Fitzgerald said he was surprised by the results, which found 41 percent of Americans agreeing that the end times are here.

“I thought the numbers could possibly be as low as 10 percent for the overall population and maybe 30 percent for Christians in general, or less. I had no way to know before the survey,” he said.

“But the response of the overall population was higher than what I expected from Christians, and the evangelicals’ response was nearly twice what I thought.”

The poll found that just over one in two Protestant adults believe the end times have arrived.

Catholics were at the other end of the spectrum, the poll report said, with 73 percent saying no. Practicing Catholics, however, registered considerably higher, with nearly 45 percent saying yes.

The results come from 1,000 online surveys among a representative sample of adults, ages 18 and older in the United States from July 29 through Aug. 1. The margin of error was plus or minuse-3.2 percentage points, at the 95 percent confidence level.

Fitzgerald said he almost decided not to follow through with the research.

“I wasn’t sure the findings would prove helpful or newsworthy,’ he said. “But this response is totally newsworthy, and I also know there may be more openness to my book’s message than I imagined. It took seven years to write, and I’m not sure that same openness would have been there when I started.”

In the poll, 54 percent of blacks said yes, as did 48 percent of Hispanics. Whites were at about 39 percent.

Also, married adults were slightly more likely to believe the world is in the end times (46 percent) than the national average. Families with children living at home responded just about the same.

“When I tell people about my book or have talked with those who have read it, one of the first things they invariably express is how concerned they are for their children in light of where we are in the world today. I would also think this might cause them to bury their head in the sand, but seeing the numbers tells me they’re not,” Fitzgerald said.

“The Barna poll shows how many Americans and Christians believe the world is living in the end times. My book will give them lots of evidence to back up what they are already thinking and sensing intuitively. I demonstrate that the biblical end times began on 9/11 at a particular point in history. As I explain, Jesus himself taught we would recognize this time from its beginning which is what I believe is happening now,” he said.

The issue of the end times has arisen amid the current turbulence in the Middle East.

Here’s one example:

Jonathan Cahn’s bestselling book, “The Harbinger,” has been criticized for suggesting that God would judge America, beginning Sept. 11, 2001, without first providing a warning.

That shocking warning is documented in the “The 9/11 Prophecy” by Fitzgerald, the creator of “The Watchword Bible,” the first word-for-word video production of the entire New Testament.

Fitzgerald led a team of moviemakers to a film festival at Madison Square Garden where “The WatchWORD Bible: the Book of Revelation” was unveiled. It was there that Fitzgerald believes he heard from God that New York was a type of Babylon and would soon face judgment.

Isaiah 9:10, the key verse in “The Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” refers to a limited incursion against the nation of Israel by the Assyrians. But instead of returning to God, the nation proclaimed it would rebuild, better than before, using its own power, without God.

The premise of the book, and documentary, is that the 9/11 terror attacks were a limited incursion against the United States, and instead of returning to God, American leaders, including Senate President Tom Daschle, starting the next day proclaimed that they would rebuild America, bigger and better than before. Without God.

But the Old Testament presents a warning, says Fitzgerald.

In the King James Version, in Amos, it says: “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Fitzgerald wrote that he was amazed by the criticism of the “Harbinger.”

“What the critique called for is exactly what my book claims did happen. God did provide prior warning. In His mercy He sent a specific deliberate warning to New York City 14 months before 9/11, through His own Word – just as Isaiah 9:8 says, and did so in full public view at Madison Square Garden.”

He noted that Isaiah 9:8 also confirms, “The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.”

“I had wondered,” he said, “why the Lord would use that one particular verse as a pattern for the post-9/11 events in America out of all the many other verses in the Bible and other countries in the world and throughout history. Why this particular verse now, and why for America? But once I looked carefully and saw its context, I was amazed. Here, in context with the 9:10 passage, was the promise of the coming of Messiah as a way to give the Jewish believers hope in the midst of judgment.”

He explained: “In terms of proving 9/11 to be a definite divine judgment on America, Cahn and I have come at it in two different ways. In his book (and in “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” documentary), he shows how the pattern of Isaiah 9:10 has providently reappeared in convincing detail after 9/11 as a harbinger of further judgment if we don’t repent. In my book, I show how the Lord led us to New York City with His warning before it happened – as convincing proof of judgment.

“I believe Scripture reveals America is destined to fall in this generation,” says the author, “and our loss of power is precisely what will pave the way for an Islamic Antichrist to reign. Though the church generally fails to recognize where we are in the biblical timeline, and those who do may lack the facts to prove it, I aim to prove beyond a doubt that the final end-time countdown began with God’s prophetic judgment on Sept. 11, 2001.”

Do you think planet Earth is nearing major cataclysmic end of age?

No, every generation goes through this kind of thinking

No, it's just a matter of evolution that has been going on for billions of years

No, our only real fear is man-made catastrophic climate change

No, war, bloodshed, disease, natural disasters and poverty have been essentially inseparable aspects of the human existence for thousands of years